Veteran game developer Cliff Bleszinski is teasing a new project, and it has nothing to do with chainsaws.
Cliff Bleszinski, also known as CliffyB, was the lead designer on the original Gears of War trilogy and is something of an icon in the games industry, but he’s been on hiatus since 2018. Now he’s back in business though, and you can take that from the man himself. Bleszinski posted on Twitter that he’s “working on some new stuff,” but as to what that stuff is, we’re going to have to wait and see.
And, yes, for the record, I'm working on some new stuff, and you should know every damned day it's agonizing to not talk about it.Deal with it. Love y'all.April 7, 2021
One thing we can be pretty sure of though, is that it’s not connected to the Gears of War franchise. In the replies to his original post, someone asked Bleszinski “Does it involve any chainsaws?”, to which he responded with “none”. The question is a reference to the lancer, the iconic chainsaw gun from the Gears of War franchise, so it looks like CliffyB isn’t going back to his roots with this next project.
Thanks to a bit more Twitter chatter, we also know that Bleszinski has spoken to Rami Ismail about the project. Ismail is another well known game developer and consultant who is probably best known for his work on indie bullet hell shooter Nuclear Throne. It’s not clear whether they two spoke about it in a professional setting, but Ismail’s portfolio website does cryptically mention that his next project is coming soon, but isn’t quite ready for the limelight yet.
Bleszinski has been taking a break from the games industry for the past few years after his last major release, Lawbreakers, fell short of sales expectations. Bleszinski had started up a new studio called Boss Key to make the arena shooter, but the game never really got off the ground, despite positive reviews. Our own review was glowing, with our writer calling it “an exhilarating, eclectic, yet tightly designed fps theme park”.
While we’re waiting for CliffyB to reveal his latest project, why not check out our roundup of upcoming PS5 games and upcoming Xbox Series X games to see what else we’ve got to look forward to.
